


Nightsilver Collection

by Ophelia_L



Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, i'll probably turn this into a soulmate series eventually, nightsilver
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-08-11 07:12:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7881589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ophelia_L/pseuds/Ophelia_L
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>an ongoing collection of nightsilver one-shots from AUs or prompts. Chapter 1: Soulmate AU prompt: you’re born with a band of your soulmate’s skin color tattooed in your skin</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nightsilver Collection

When Peter is very young, he asks his mother about the thin, deep blue band of skin around his forearm.

“That’s your soulmate band, dear,” she says. “It shows you the color of your soulmate’s skin.” She kneels down next to him and pulls up her pant leg, showing him the ring of skin that is just a few shades tanner than hers. “This is…this was the color of your father’s skin.”

“Does this mean my soulmate will look like Cookie Monster?”

His mother laughs. “I doubt it, but they won’t be hard to spot, that for sure.”

As Peter gets older, little tiny marks start appearing within the blue band. Slightly lighter, angular lines. They kind of look like scars, and Peter wonders what is happening to his soulmate. The band never fades though- his soulmate is still very much alive. Peter has seen it happen, though- when someone’s soulmate dies, and their band fades away to almost nothing.

\-----

Kurt spends a lot of time looking at the pale band of skin around his bicep. The one part of him that could belong to a regular person. He wonders if they really are a regular person, or if they’re a mutant like him. It’s almost too much to ask for- someone that doesn’t treat him like a circus freak when they see his blue skin. Someone that understands him. 

At the same time, he knows that the odds of coming across the right person are very slim- it’s not an uncommon skin tone, after all. 

When he starts adding the angelic symbols to his skin, he makes sure that none of them mar the band.

\-----

The first time Peter gets his hopes up, it’s shortly after he gets back from breaking that guy out of the Pentagon (he still can’t believe he broke someone out of the Pentagon). He sees a blue-skinned woman on TV, and he thinks her skin could almost be the right color. But his excitement fades when he doesn’t see a band of color anywhere on her body (and he would _definitely_ see it). He looks harder, and spots a band of light blue on her calf- it blends well enough that he almost misses it.

So not her, then.

 

The next time he thinks he’s found them, he forgets about it almost immediately. He’s come to a halt outside Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. To his right is a shiny yellow car, and in the passenger seat is a young man with deep blue skin, frozen mid-laugh. 

And then Peter feels the earth shake under his feet, and he rushes off toward the mansion.

After he pulls all the students from the building, he looks around for the blue-skinned boy. He doesn’t find him, but he does find a helicopter, some soldiers, and a blast that knocks him unconscious.

When Peter comes to in the cell, the man he pulled from the blast is now blue and furry, and the blonde woman has become the blue woman- Mystique, he thinks her name is- he saw on TV so long ago. He can still see the light blue band on her calf. Oddly enough, it’s about the same color as the furry guy’s skin.

When the blue boy appears in the window above them and yells at them to move away from the doors, Peter gets his first good look at him, and he’s never understood the expression “heart skipping a beat” until now. He can’t see much of the boy’s skin, but he thinks it’s almost the exact shade of his band- and the boy’s skin is covered in twisting, curving lines. Peter pulls up his sleeve and looks at his band in half the time it would take someone to blink, and he’s right- the lines on the band mimic the ones on the boy’s face.

Then the door blows, and they’re sprinting down the hall, Peter matching pace with everyone else. The blue boy appears next to them with a puff of blue smoke, and Peter can’t help but let out a startled _"Jesus!"_ because it’s not like he knew what this kid _(his soulmate?)_ could do.

(And then the boy apologizes for startling him, and Peter decides that even if they aren’t soulmates, he likes this kid.)

When they’re on the stolen jet, headed for Egypt, and Mystique is talking about that day ten years ago, the boy is sitting right next to him. Peter hears him laugh for the first time- just a little chuckle, but still there. He debates bringing up his soulmate band to him, but decides against it. It’s not really the best time, anyway. Afterwards would be better. He tries to keep out the thoughts that whisper _what if there’s not an afterwards for one of you?_

He thinks the thoughts were right not once but twice. When Apocalypse traps his foot and breaks his leg, and he can barely think through the pain, the one thought that breaks through is _I wish I had told him. I wish I had told someone._

And then miraculously, the girl in purple is Mystique, and he survives. The furry guy busts his foot from the rock and jumps back up to the blown-out building where everyone has taken shelter, and his heart lurches again when he sees the boy lying _so, so still_ and in a panic, he yanks up his sleeve, expecting to see the fading remnants of blue- but it’s as richly colored as it’s ever been. 

“Is he gonna be okay?” Peter tries to keep the desperation out of his voice as he nods at the boy, and then realizes that there is desperation trying to creep into his voice. Apparently, sometime in between the flight and now, he’s accepted that this kid is his soulmate deep down. He knew it before, but it hasn’t really sunk in.

“He’s just weak,” says the redhead. “He’ll be all right.” Peter thinks she gives him a brief knowing look, but he can’t be sure.

As if to prove the redhead right, the boy sits bolt upright and cries “Hold on!” He sways slightly, looks around, and then asks, quite calmly, “What did I miss?” It seems to break some of the tension and everyone chuckles a little. The boy smiles too, not quite seeming to get why everyone is laughing, before the smile fades from his face and he mumbles something about laying down again before he passes out once more.

Peter sees Kurt’s- he finally learns the blue boy’s name on the flight home- band for the first time when the two of them have been confined to the newly rebuilt infirmary in the mansion. Kurt is asleep- he’s doing quite a lot of that lately while he recovers- and Peter is in the bed next to him, on strict orders from Hank not to get up. There’s an unspoken “or else” there, and Peter thinks that the “else” probably won’t be nice if it comes from him.

However, what Hank doesn’t know won’t provoke him, and it’s not like Peter’s going that far anyways. He swings his legs carefully over the side of the bed, puts his good one halfway in between his bed and Kurt’s, and just kind of…leans over to land on Kurt’s bed. He pulls his sleeve up and places the band of skin next to Kurt’s bare forearm.

It’s the very same shade. Kurt shifts in his sleep, and the cotton t-shirt he’s been given is pulled up an inch or so. Peter pulls his arm back, afraid he’s awoken him, then sees the flesh- colored band around Kurt’s bicep. He stretches out a hand and compares them.

Again, the same shade.

Peter draws back, and makes his way back over to his own bed. This is it. He has a soulmate. 

_And he’s a guy_ fleetingly crosses his mind, but he’s surprised to find it doesn’t really bother him. 

Come to think of it, that’s never really bothered him at all. He’s had a pretty even share of flings with guys and girls. And Kurt is pretty cute, there’s no doubt about that. Peter looks down at the band.

“What’s that?” That muted German accent makes him look up. Kurt’s propped up on one elbow, looking over at him. The honey-colored eyes flick downwards and Peter knows Kurt has seen his own skin on Peter’s arm.

“It’s my, uh… you know what soulmate bands are?”

Kurt nods. “ _Ja_ …my mother told me when I was young. Is that yours?”

Peter figures he should just get it out there. “Yeah. And, uh…” He leans forward towards Kurt and sticks out his arm. “It looks an awful lot like you.”

Kurt holds a three-fingered hand up to the band, then lets it drift up to his arm and pushes up his sleeve.

“I did not know… if I would ever find my bond. My _seelenverwandte_. I thought I would be trapped in the fighting cage for the rest of my life.” He traces the band on his bicep. “How do you know, when someone is your…soul-mate?”

“I think something happens when your skin touches for the first time. I dunno, man. I heard a lot of different things from my friends.” 

Kurt holds out his hand once more. “Should we not… find out? I mean… “

Peter grabs his hand, and it’s not as dramatic as he’s been led to believe, at least physically. There’s a strange jolt, kind of like an electric shock, and both of them let out gasps. Peter’s mind feels like hundreds of thousands of new feelings and memories are rushing through and flying out. Even at the speed he processes things he can only catch a few glimpses- bright lights, colorful costumes- and he realizes he’s seeing Kurt’s memories. 

And then it’s over, as quickly as it began, and he and Kurt are left clasping hands across the gap between their beds. The elbow that Kurt is propped up on wobbles and Peter crosses the gap in a fraction of an instant.

“You okay, man?” he asks. 

Kurt nods. “Yes. That was just…so much.” He lets himself collapse back onto the bed with a small sigh.

“You, uh… you should get some rest,” says Peter.

“And you should do the same,” says Kurt, a small smile on his lips, “before the rather large man returns and makes good on his threat.”

**Author's Note:**

> if you're a nightsilver fan and you've got a tumblr, follow the nightsilver archives! (nightsilverarchives.tumblr.com) we're dedicated to cataloguing and rec'ing the best nightsilver fics out there.


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